"Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies" at Custom Made Theatre Company

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I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this show. It struck me as one that could be super powerful, or it could go in various either silly or preachy ways and really fall over. On the whole I was impressed that both playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm and director Lisa Marie Rollins  kept things on a pretty middle path.

I was also intrigued by the similarity in title to a book I've heard of, but not read: "How to Be Black," by Baratunde Thurston. That one is a humorous and at least somewhat autobiographical look at the role of a young African American man coming of age in this country.

The Play

Hooded is the story of two fourteen-year-old African American boys: Marquis, who lives with his adopted white family in the suburbs and attends a prestigious prep school where he is essentially the token black, and Tru, from inner-city Baltimore. The two meet in a jail holding cell. Marquis was caught trespassing in a cemetary where he and a couple of his white friends from school were taking pictures to post online. Tru's charges are more nebulous, amounting to loitering and not much more.

The opening scene between them is pretty amusing, as Tru tries to wrap his head around what the naive Marquis was actually doing, and Marquis tries to figure out why Tru thinks it's so bizarre. It eventually becomes clear that Tru is pretty much accustomed to being detained essentially for being black, and Marquis doesn't quite grasp that there is a reason why he, and neither of his white friends, was pursued and detained.

We soon meet Officer Borzoi, himself African American, but quite thoroughly in the service of the white power structure. Tru has a lot of opinions about Borzoi (and a lot of knowledge about his eponymous dog breed). Next into the scene is Marquis's adoptive mother, a rather obvious strawman representing the do-gooder white savior who not only gets her son released, but also springs Tru for pretty much all the wrong assumed reasons.

Next we arrive at school where we meet Marquis's two friends, Hunter and Fielder, and three girls: Meadow, Prairie, and Clementine. It becomes pretty clear that the boys' friendship is rather an odd one, and definitely not reciprocal. The girls are pretty humorously stereotypical teens, always taking selfies and talking about boys, and which ones they like.

As it turns out, there is some mutual attraction between Marquis and Clementine, which leads to some interesting scenes. Meanwhile, Marquis's mom has decided to sponsor Tru into the prep school, too, so he shows up determined to teach Marquis to be black, to the point of writing a book for him, called "Being Black for Dummies." Marquis finds this rather insulting and refuses the book. Hunter picks it up unbeknownst to the other boys, and starts studying up on how to be black.

So where I largely expected this play to be about Tru schooling Marquis (and there is certainly some of that), there is also a good chunk of what happens when a very white white boy decides to follow the lessons and become black.

At this point the dynamics among the kids become pretty interesting, and much more nuanced than I had anticipated or been led to expect from the early scenes. So I'm impressed with Chisholm's writing here.

I'm not going to go into the details of the later interactions, but let's just say things get out of hand in a couple of different directions, and everyone learns some lessons about being black. Oh, and there is some intervention by Apollo and Dionysus, which is a little weird, but why not?

The Production

As usual with Custom Made productions, the staging can't be too intricate, as there just isn't much space on or off stage. But the actors manage to make the most out of what they've got. Costumes are pretty easy, as most of the kids are wearing their prep school uniforms most of the time. The lack of sets and props in general keeps the focus on the actors, and they are the interesting part of the show anyway.

On the acting front, Tre'Vonne Bell as Tru stands out as very smooth and natural. Jesse Franklin Charles Vaughn as Marquis never seems quite comfortable in his skin, and I had a hard time telling whether that was an intentional portrayal of Marquis or just discomfort with the role. Either way, it was pretty effective. Rebecca Hodges as Clementine seemed particularly good among the teen girls.

I have to say on the whole that the girls were much more effective as passing as 14-year-olds than the boys were. They definitely had the mannerisms and speech patterns down. Neither Bell nor Vaughn was able to really convince me that they were fourteen. I might have bought sixteen or seventeen, but they definitely didn't have the raw adolescent feel that the parts really call for.

Even before the first scene starts, BE Rivers comes out as Officer Borzoi and gives a fairly unique curtain speech, instructing us to turn ON our cell phones and to answer them if we get calls. He then drew attention to the two LAUGH lights above the stage, informing us that we were to laugh when they come one, and not laugh when they do not. If you laugh without the lights, you're racist. That part was sort of cute, but the execution of it was poor--the timing of the lights was distracting, and we all eventually ignored them (and I think they just stopped using them, but I don't guarantee that). But it sets the tone for the show: this is going to be uncomfortable, and we don't make the rules. Good lessons about being black.

For the other roles, Peter Alexander impressed with his versatility as the very white Hunter who decides to become black, and then later as the school administrator who dresses down Marquis at the end. I wasn't quite what to make of Max Seijas as Fielder. He seemed more comfortable when he was playing Dionysus. Ari Lagomarsino as Meadow makes an interesting counterpart to Hunter's transition, though that part of her role is pretty short.

Overall, the acting manages to overcome the deficiencies in the staging, and the writing stands up to the devices like the LAUGH signs. We ultimately get a pretty human story with some good laughs along the way, and just enough discomfort to keep one from just laughing it all off.

Bottom Line

I was pleasantly surprised with this play overall. The staging mostly managed not to get in the way of the play and the acting, so we could focus on the people and the issues. There was nothing really earth-shaking here for those who have been paying attention. I was pretty acutely aware of some of my black friends growing up in a relatively white world and the fact that their path, even when near mine, was very different. But it's been a long time since I had to focus on that for an extended period such as this, so 100 minutes of immersion in that world is a good reminder that my life is very different from even those of some people quite close to me.

So I'm pleased to say that Custom Made has a winner with this one. My expectations for them aren't all that high, as I've had kind of mixed results from the plays I've seen there. But this one is good, and worth seeing. The play alone is quite good, and the production is fine.

The good news is they've been extended through April 7th, so you still have two weekends to go see this show, and I recommend that you do so if you can.